Stories of things. What you can see on 18th-century table from Kuskovo estate collection

The exposition of the main house of the Kuskovo estate holds a table for engravings and music sheets. A landscape on the tabletop not only shows the estate in its heyday but also gives us a chance to learn about its author Nikifor Vasiliev, a prominent cabinet maker, and the astonishing technique of furniture decoration, which was very popular in the 18th century. Lyudmila Syagaeva, Deputy Director for Science at the Ostankino and Kuskovo State Museum and Reserve, tells us about the history of the exhibit.

Kuskovo panorama

At the time of its founder and first owner, Count Pyotr Sheremetev, the Kuskovo estate was considered one of the most beautiful in the Moscow Region (later, it became part of Moscow). The main part of the Early Classicism architectural complex had been built by the mid-1770s, and by the 1780s, the estate reached its golden age. The palace hosted balls and guest-nights for the elite, while the grounds were open for general public.

People were attracted by the local ponds, a 300-meter canal opposite the palace, two wonderful parks: a romantic English landscape one and a strict and neat French formal park with artificial groves of fruit trees, marble sculptures, and obelisks. A greenhouse with exotic plants and various architectural "souvenirs" from distant countries – a grotto decorated with seashells and Italian, Dutch, and Swiss houses – were extremely appealing for visitors.

The estate as it was in the late 1770s – early 1780s is depicted on one of the exhibits kept in the palace today, a table for storing engravings and music sheets. The panoramic image of the estate on the tabletop is a copy of an engraving from an album of the estate views custom-made for Pyotr Sheremetev. The album engraved in France by Pierre Laurent, in turn, was based on drawings by Russian artists led by Mikhail Makhaev.

The landscape shows the palace, the Church of the All-Merciful Savior, a grotto, an Italian pavilion, a Dutch house, a large stone greenhouse and other buildings familiar to anyone who has ever been to the Kuskovo estate. There is a pond with a boat drawn in the lower part of the tabletop. Pyotr Sheremetev's guests were fond of activities on the water. Mock battles were played at the ponds: a fortress island next to the Dutch house was blasted with fake cannonballs and seized.

It is easy to determine when the landscape was made. It depicts the estate after 1775 (the palace had been rebuilt by that time) but before the 1790s because it shows no bell tower in the cour d'honneur yet (built in 1792).

The landscape is framed with the Sheremetev coat of arms (two lions holding a shield under an earl's crown). There is an inscription at the bottom next to the coat of arms: ”The General View of Big Pond of His Excellency Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev’s Kuskovo Village near Moscow, Facing the South."

Awesome but harmful technique

The table kept in the Kuskovo estate was custom-made for Pyotr Sheremetev by a Russian cabinet-maker Nikifor Vasiliev. His works are kept not only in the Kuskovo estate but also in many Russian collections: Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the Grand Palace in Peterhof, and the State Historical Museum. However, the Kuskovo exhibit stands out from Vasiliev's other works: it is the only work signed by the famous artisan. He signed in the lower right corner of the counter: "Applied by Nikifor Vasiliev."

This table gave rise to legends that appeared later. According to one of them, the Sheremetevs had their own furniture workshops where Vasiliev worked. This was not actually the case, as Vasiliev was a hired artisan. According to another legend, this table cost him his health. Over the years spent working on the landscape, Vasiliev had almost gone blind. This is a harder statement to debunk.

The fact is the tabletop was made with a very sophisticated marquetry technique (from the French marqueterie meaning "mosaic"), one of the varieties of wood inlay. Marquetry had to be filigreed and indeed often ruined artisans’ eyesight.

The technique emerged in France in the second half of the 16th century, when a machine for the production of sliced veneer (a thin sheet of wood) was invented. The veneer was the main background, and artisans applied pieces of colored wood onto it, thus assembling the whole picture like a mosaic. Marquetry artisans usually used wood of natural shades, toning was used only for the green color.

The artisans who mastered marquetry earned a lot of money. Furniture decorated with wooden mosaics (dressers, bookcases, tables, armchairs) was often custom-made to decorate houses of the elite. Gradually, such furniture became popular in other countries too.

The marquetry technique came to Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great. The Empress adored beautiful things, tried to surround herself with them, and invited marquetry masters from Europe. This became an example to the Russian nobility and they started ordering similar furniture and decorative and applied art items not only from French but also from gifted Russian craftsmen.